lost-in-limbo

Peter Benchley's Creature was a goofy (more than I last remembered) made-for-tv two part mini-series. Overly padded, messily edited and kinda tame when it came to the monster action, but beautiful tropical island locations distract and I do like Craig T. Nelson and Kim Cattrall as the leads. Concept had a creative basis, but too bad the idea didn't match the execution. Stan Winston worked on the monster designs, and they're nothing to write home about.

I might prefer the 2 part mini-series adaption of Peter Benchley's "The Beast" from the previous year.

'Silk' is just another cheap Cirio H. Santiago quickie Phillipines production. Sloppy with straightforward action set-pieces, but remains slightly amusing in its pacy run-of-a-mill cops and robbers set-up. This time taking place in Honolulu. Well, actually it's Manila, Phillipines masquerading as Hawaii. Cec Verrell is pretty badass as the title character. A striking fashion sense makes her look good when taking out bad guys and with lines of dialogue like this when a bad guy asks why they call her Silk... she replies, "Because I'm so f%*#^~*<g smooth." Predictable, but it hits the spot.

A haunted house horror ride that spawned a video game and said to be an influence for the 'Resident Evil' games. Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, you can't help but see some flashes that had me thinking of his film; Pulse (2001), especially regarding the shadow ghosts. I wish it had been far more foreboding though, as the light-hearted humour and bright lighting in the first half of the characters exploring and interacting does seem to undermine it at times. However the vivid set designs of the abandoned mansion in the woods are like something out of a Mario Bava gothic horror film, so when it gets dark the spook levels rise and Dick Smith's makeup FX provides the gooey goods with a nasty moment or two. The climatic final battle (like out a video game) is a light show of unhinged thrills, and pulsating special-effects that are well worth the wait. Think 'Poltergeist', but on steroids.